Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Fast 1GBps sustained transfers
- Excellent actual world efficiency
- Vast 4TB capability
- Svelte and good-looking
Cons
- Not low cost
- Small 4K efficiency glitch below CrystalDiskMark 8 writing 4K recordsdata
Our Verdict
If you want loads of capability in your shirt pocket, there’s nothing higher than the Samsung T7 Shield 4TB for many customers. It’s an excellent exterior 10Gbps USB SSD made higher.
Price When Reviewed
$469
Best Prices Today: Samsung T7 4TB
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Though we’ve already reviewed the Samsung T7 Shield, we couldn’t resist revisiting it for the just-announced $429 4TB capability. It was an important drive already—our favorite external drive, the truth is—however now it’s at house with huge information units.
This new model of the already-excellent Samsung T7 Shield is larger and sooner than ever. What’s to not love?
Design
The Samsung T7 Shield 4TB is principally an NVMe SSD nestled inside a USB 3.2 10Gbps housing. The SSD would doubtless maintain up properly if the enclosure supplied 20Gbps switch speeds, however Samsung caught with the older, way more frequent USB 3.2 implementation.
The T7 Shield measures 3.5-inches lengthy by 2.3-inches vast by 0.5-inches thick, and weighs just below 4 ounces. That’s a little bit heavier than the T7 Touch, however wrapped in a silicone protecting sleeve, that’s to be anticipated.
The new 4TB version will set you again the aforementioned $429, however the Samsung T7 Shield can be out there in 1TB and 2TB capacities for $160 and $290 respectively (although these fashions are on sale for roughly 40 p.c off on the time of writing). The drive is offered in three colours: blue or beige, along with the black mannequin Samsung despatched us.
I carried out a few drop exams from about three toes onto arduous surfaces, and with the drive being strong state and guarded, there have been no unwell penalties. Indeed, it feels good within the hand ought to you end up in a David versus Goliath circumstance.
The T7 Shield’s USB connector is Type-C, and each USB Type-A to Type-C and Type-C to Type-C cables are included.
As to the IP65 score, the 6 means the Shield can keep at bay most particulate matter, whereas the 5 means you’ll be able to spray it with water, if not immerse it. A 7 would point out that immersion as much as three meters is survivable. No doubt the naked Type-C port has one thing to do with the lesser score. If you need the whole run down on Ingress Protection rankings, this article on our sister publication TechHive will clarify it.
This new model of the already-excellent Samsung T7 Shield is larger and sooner than ever. What’s to not love?
While the T7 Shield lacks the T7 Touch’s fingerprint reader, it could actually nonetheless be password-secured utilizing Samsung’s Portable SSD software program (proven under). To use this function, mentioned software program will have to be current on any pc you need to entry the drive from. Honestly, it you need safe, go for the T7 Touch, which—although a lesser performer—will prevent a number of time and frustration by bypassing password entry. Alas, there’s no 4TB capability of the Touch but. Bummer.
Performance
The sustained giant file efficiency (over 1GBps in some circumstances) of the 4TB model of Samsung’s T7 Shield was no shock. More capability typically means extra NAND for caching and higher sustained throughput–particularly with giant information units akin to our single 450GB file.
However, the 4TB capability did glitch barely within the CrystalDiskMark 8, 4K random write with 32 queues and a single thread take a look at, scoring half what most different drives do. This was not mirrored in actual world efficiency and all the opposite numbers are an total enchancment over the 2TB model we beforehand examined.
It took a retest to see it, however the 4TB Shield proved the quickest 10Gbps SSD we’ve examined, ending solely behind the three 20Gbps drives we’ve examined.
The 4TB T7 Shield was additionally the quickest 10Gbps exterior SSD we’ve examined writing 450GB, and considerably surprisingly, bested two of the 20Gbps drives we’ve examined. It positioned second total to the WD Black P50–a 20Gbps exterior gaming SSD.
Other than the slight glitch below CrystalDiskMark 8 within the 4K writes, the 4TB T7 Shield is well the quickest 10Gbps exterior SSD we’ve examined. As mentioned glitch didn’t have an effect on actual world operations, we’re assigning it little weight.
Vast and fairly quick
The Samsung T7 Shield is a superb exterior SSD in any capability, however the 4TB model was a revelation. Capable of dealing with the biggest end-user information units, it additionally options wonderful efficiency, and a good worth per terabyte. It’s nice stuff for storing your stuff.
External drive exams are run utilizing Windows 11 64-bit on an MSI MEG X570/AMD Ryzen 3700X combo with 4 16GB Kingston 2666MHz DDR4 modules, a Zotac (Nvidia) GT 710 1GB x2 PCIe graphics card, and an ASMedia ASM3242 USB 3.2×2 card. Copy exams make the most of an ImDisk RAM disk utilizing 58GB of the 64GB whole reminiscence. Each take a look at is carried out on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Over time, as a drive fills up, efficiency will lower as a result of much less NAND for caching and different elements.
The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we had been shipped and of the capability examined. SSD efficiency can range by capability as a result of extra or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes throughout and the quantity of NAND out there for secondary caching. Vendors additionally sometimes swap elements, although we’ve by no means identified Samsung to take action.